Beauty With Generative AI: Estee Lauder, Microsoft Expand Collaboration

Beauty brand Estee Lauder Companies and Microsoft have announced the creation of an AI Innovation Lab, as an expansion of their global collaboration that will leverage generative AI capabilities in Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service with the objective of reimagining the beauty space.

The companies will work together to develop solutions to support ELC’s more than 20 beauty brands in creating closer consumer connections and increasing speed to market with local relevancy.

ELC and Microsoft have created an internal-facing generative AI chatbot to enhance marketing effectiveness. The tool utilises advanced conversational AI technology to navigate and leverage ELC’s proprietary database of product and claim data, allowing brands to launch locally relevant campaigns more rapidly.

“With Microsoft’s generative AI tools and extensive expertise, we are able to leverage ELC’s tremendous data to create more personalised consumer experiences and faster insights to action, resulting in increased speed to market and stronger local relevancy,” said Jane Lauder, executive vice president-enterprise marketing and chief data officer, the Estee Lauder Companies.

The companies are also applying generative AI tools in research and development for quicker product development, allowing scientists and product development specialists to respond to emerging product and ingredient trends more rapidly.

“Generative AI represents a significant opportunity for the beauty industry—creating more engaging customer experiences, getting products into the hands of consumers faster, developing new products more efficiently and sustainably, and much more,” said Shelley Bransten, corporate vice president-global industry solutions, Microsoft.

ELC had earlier utilised Azure AI as the platform for its voice-enabled makeup assistant, a mobile app launched in 2023 to help visually impaired users more easily apply makeup.